The police in Bengaluru have booked Sakra Hospital at Devarabisanahalli on the Outer Ring Road for allegedly not complying with the COVID-19 regulations of providing information on its bed occupancy. A first information report (FIR) has been filed against the hospital at the Marathahalli Police Station after the health department officials complained that the administration of the hospital did not provide information about the status of bed occupancy for COVID-19 patients. The officials also alleged that the hospital did not inform the number of patients it treated between July 23 and 29.
The complaint was filed by a health department official on the insistence of the Bengaluru Urban Deputy Commissioner GN Shivamurthy.
According to a report in the Hindu, the FIR mentions that the hospital management failed to disclose information, as directed by the special officers and the nodal officer concerned, when they went to inspect the hospital on July 29.
The report said that the FIR has been registered under sections of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, and the Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020, and the accused have been named as Deepak Balani, head of the hospital and two others associates, Deepthi and Deepak Agarkad.
The Times of India reported that IAS officer Uma Mahadevan and IPS officer Sunil Agarwal, the nodal officers assigned to help patients find beds in hospitals, had sought the bills and payment slips from the hospital for patients admitted between July 23 and July 29. This team is one of the seven such teams, led by one Indian Administrative Service (IAS) official and one Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, formed to reign in private hospitals in Bengaluru in the wake of complaints of overcharging.
TOI quoted a police official saying that the team of IPS and IAS officers wanted to check if the hospital was following the price cap put in place by the Karnataka government for COVID-19 treatment.
However, the hospital has denied the allegation and said that they were unaware of the FIR registered against them while speaking with the newspaper. Deepak, who has been named in the FIR, told TOI that they were working with the government to tackle this pandemic and said the legal proceeding was a setback.